Learning to follow Baha'u'llah and His Universal House of Justice

One way I'm practicing and promoting, for people to improve their conduct, online and offline, is by learning to follow Baha'u'llah and His Universal House of Justice.

Uses and misuses of language

A discussion I've been having with a friend, about moral precepts, started me thinking about uses and misuses of oral and written language, and I decided to write a post about that. A search on the Internet brought up poetry, propaganda, advertising, and figurative language. I also thought of metaphorical language; the specialized languages of arts, crafts, sciences and services; and the formal, informal and technical languages discussed in The Silent Language by Edward T. Hall.

In the face of that fathomless ocean, I decided to go back to the topic of moral precepts, and some harmful and malicious ways they're commonly used. I have a one track mind that always goes back to ways of improving myself, and helping to improve the world, so I'll approach it from the angle of learning to avoid using moral precepts in harmful ways, and to help counteract the harmful effects of other people misusing them.

For now I'll generalize "moral precepts" to "changes I want to promote in other people's behavior," and discuss one way among others that I've been practicing, to avoid some possible harmful effects of that: before I start promoting some kind of change in other people's behavior, I work on changing my behavior in the same way.

I'm thinking now of various ways words spoken or written can influence people's behavior apart from communicating information and ideas, for example in songs, stories and poetry; and by triggering emotional reflexes associated with words and phrases. All those ways can be harmful and beneficial, just like any other ways of influencing people. My biggest problem that I'm aware of is intimidating people. I've been struggling with that for decades, and I've made some progress, but I'm perpetually disappointed with the results of my efforts.

How I use moral precepts

Cover by John R. Neill, 1916

"Now, I think that is neatly put, and shows the author to be a deep thinker. But the advice that has impressed me the most is in the following paragraph: 'You may not find it as Pleasant to be Good as it is to be Bad, but Other People will find it more Pleasant.' Haw-hoo-ho! keek-eek! 'Other people will find it more pleasant!'—hee, hee, heek, keek!—'more pleasant.' Dear me—dear me! Therein lies a noble incentive to be good, and whenever I get time I'm surely going to try it."

- King Rinkitink, reading a parchment entitled "How to be Good," in Rinkitink of Oz, by L. Frank Baum

My moral precepts come mostly from Baha'i writings. It looks to me like the way I use them most often is by saying them to myself, and sometimes reading them. I like what I see and imagine it doing to me, and for me, when I say them to myself. For example, I see that sometimes it helps put me in the right spirit for something I want to do; sometimes it inspires, encourages and strengthens me to be the way I want to be and do what I want to do; and sometimes it gives me moral support in the face of scorn and contempt for my values. I imagine that it also helps me in other ways, in trying to be the best person I can be and do all the good I can do.

Another way I use them is for ideas about ways to improve my character and conduct, and to help improve the world.

Another way I use them is saying them to other people sometimes, when I think they might have some good use for them.

Learning not to misuse groups, categories and labels

I've been thinking about how to explain what I'm practicing and promoting in relation to dividing people into groups and categories, and the labeling associated with that. What I'm practicing and promoting is far from clear to me, and it looks to me now like it might take a lot more time, and a lot more practice, for me to find ways to explain it that will make sense to anyone but me.

For now I'll just put down some random thoughts as they come to me.

1. I think of people as being randomly scattered across a continuum of variations in personality and behavior, rather than being neatly divided into separate groups and categories, and I'm trying to learn to always keep that in mind in discussions of social issues.

2. I don't think any group or category label attached to a person, by herself or by others, tells me anything whatsoever about her personality, character, ideology, interests, motives, purposes or capacities, and I'm trying to learn to always remember that. I also want to learn not to use any group or category labels in my conversations to try to convey any of my ideas or impressions about anyone's personality, character, ideology, interests, motives, purposes or capacities.

3. I'm trying to learn to strictly avoid associating any kind of personality, character, ideology, interests, motives, purposes or capacities, with any group or category of people, even implicitly, in my conversations.

4. I'm trying to learn to never depreciate anyone, and to free myself from all ill will.

5. I'm practicing fellowship and collaboration with some of the people whose ideologies are most opposed to mine, in my view or theirs.

Two social issues that concern me most of all now are the ravaging that I see intertwined with global monopoly games; and animosities and hostilities between Christians and Muslims, which I see as part of the desperate dying convulsions of prejudices used to rally support for the ravaging, and threatening to blow up the world. Part of what I see facilitating all that, is associating personality and character defects with groups and categories of people.

What motivates me in these efforts is not any hope of ever seeing any results from them, in anyone else's behavior. This is just part of what I'm doing to try to help improve the world, even if I never get to see any improvements in other people's behavior that might result from it.

I want to say that I see some deeper and more urgent problems in the growing and spreading alarm and anger that are fueling the animosities and hostilities, and in the moral and spiritual vacuum in which any excuse will do, for people to indulge their most treacherous, cruel and violent impulses, but I won't go into details about that now.

Looking at the man in the mirror

In my manifesto, I wrote that before I would criticize anyone else's behavior, I would want to criticize my own first.

I wanted to say something about some unhealthy-looking behavior I saw around me, so I decided to look for that behavior in myself first.

Here's what I saw:
- Jumping to conclusions about someone's personality and character from only a few observations of what they say and do, without any investigation.
- Anger and alarm continually erupting at the slightest provocation.
- Fear of letting people see the loving, affectionate, sensitive, sentimental, intuitive parts of my personality, and possibly being depreciated and intimidated, keeping me from talking about some of my thoughts and feelings in public.
- Continually being tempted to promote my ideas and interests in ways that depreciate and intimidate others.

There might be some clues for me in all that, about why my progress in learning kindness and humility has been so slow.

Responses to offensive evangelism

"Two ladies from Scotland, delighted that their request to have an evening with the Master while He was in London had been granted, were warmly received by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. How they relished having this intimate evening! Half an hour passed in His warm presence, when suddenly they were filled with consternation—an aggressive reporter strode into their midst and seated himself—he wanted information about the Master. His talkative, impolite manner left the ladies speechless—such an intrusion could spoil that precious evening. Then, to their surprise, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stood up and, beckoning the reporter to follow Him, led the way into His room. The ladies had indeed got rid of the intruder, but they had also lost ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. What were they to do? Before long the hostess went into the Master’s secretary and asked that He be informed ‘that the ladies with whom the appointment had been made are awaiting His pleasure.’ Very soon kind words of farewell were heard. Then the Master returned, pausing by the door. Gravely, He looked at each and said, ‘You were making that poor man uncomfortable, so strongly desiring his absence; I took him away to make him feel happy.’"

(Honnold, Annamarie, Vignettes from the Life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 54)

I just learned about a man who travels around, preaching at universities, in the name of Christianity, promoting views that seem very offensive and alarming to many Christians. I've thought about how I might want to respond to that, if I lived or studied on that campus.

One way of responding that I read about, and which I love, was students of all persuasions, including atheists and a diversity of Christians, gathering nearby, having loving conversations with each other about their beliefs.

Beyond that, here are some other things I might want to do, and not do, if I lived or studied on that campus:

1. If we had advance notice, I might want to prepare information booths to set up near where he was preaching, about the gospel. Or not. I see pros and cons to that.

2. I would want to try to show him God's love, and surround Him with God's grace. Give him friendly attention. Look for things in his behavior to appreciate, and praise him for them. Express appreciation for his courage and audacity in trying to teach the gospel as he understands it. Ask him about his family, his interests, looking for some possible topic for friendly conversation. Walk with him, offer to help him carry his things. Bring him water. Invite him to a meal. Every way I could think of to shower him with God's love. Of course I would need to fill myself up with God's love first, before I would approach him! Maybe pray together with some friends first, and read some appropriate Bible verses, and ask them to pray for me while I was with him.

3. I would *not* debate with *anyone* about *anything.*

4. I would *not* mock or ridicule him, or say or insinuate anything depreciating him or his views. If I openly objected to anyone's behavior, I would start with the behavior of any of my friends I saw treating him unkindly or depreciating him, before I would say anything about his behavior.

5. I might not encourage any women to spend time with him, or to talk to him more than briefly. It might be better for men to spend time with him, and women to pray for them. That might be something to consult about, with whoever is volunteering to shower him with love.

More atheism might not be enough

This is written for atheists who have seen the same social problems among atheists, that they've seen in the rest of society; who have concluded that more atheism will not be enough, by itself, to improve the situation; and who are exploring other ways to address social issues, along with trying to help reduce the popularity of religion and belief in God. It may or may not be of interest to other atheists.

I'm practicing and promoting fellowship and collaboration across the widest ideological divides, as part of a solution to our social problems, and just to help improve the world in general. That might make all of our efforts more fruitful in a variety of ways. Besides, for me, that kind of fellowship and collaboration has been worth doing in itself.

If that interests you, please email me, or if you know of anyone who might be interested, please invite them to contact me.

Value of anger

Considering how to rid myself of feelings of ill will, some questions came up about the value of anger. I had already thought of it as providing energy and determination for efforts to remedy some problem. Now a new idea came to me, anger might help avoid and counteract some demoralizing effects of some of our experiences.

I won't try to find all the possible benefits of anger. I'll just imagine that there are others besides the ones I see, and that if I work on some examples of how to rid myself of enduring feelings of ill will against individuals, without losing the benefits of anger that I see, some part of me will do whatever else needs to be done.

I'll try to practice putting my anger to good use in those two ways that I've already thought of, and at the same time try to rid myself of feelings of ill will against any person. One way I see to rid myself of ill will against a person, is to seek rewarding experiences with that person, if possible, otherwise to fantasize rewarding experiences with that person.

Another thing that helps me is to remember times when I've been tempted to do what the other person did that angered me, and times when I've failed to resist temptations that I wanted to resist.

While I was considering all this, a thought came to me that I sometimes stoke my anger, by dwelling on whatever made me angry. That might be something I could do without quite safely, whatever the value of anger might be.

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Questions and answers

Fantasize rewarding experiences?
Maybe by thinking of someone in my life that the person reminds me of, and remembering rewarding experiences with that person.

Now I'm seeing a long and lonely road ahead, and it's bringing me down out of the clouds.

1. I want to practice finding things to love in some of the people whose ideology is most opposed to mine, and in some of the people who are hardest for me to love; and practice fellowship with them. I also want to practice speaking well of them to others.

2. I want to try to rid myself of all depreciating thoughts about people, and all enduring feelings of ill will.

3. I want to find ways to make all that appealing to other people, so they will want to do it too. Maybe, if I find treasures along the way, I can tell people about them.

4. I want to continue organizing my ideas; about practicing and promoting fellowship across ideological divides; and about freedom from backbiting, not to publish them but to make better use of them.

Lying awake in the middle of the night, my mind racing, I realized that I was starting to build a mountain of words, and putting words ahead of deeds, the exact opposite of what I want to practice and promote! I've been trying to organize my ideas about how to practice and promote loving people, and fellowship, across ideological divides; and freedom from backbiting; to write about them to some friends, and post on my blog.

Now I want to try to practice first, then write about my experience.

- Part of the foundation I want to practice and promote is praying and making efforts to learn to love God more. I'm trying to memorize, and learn to say and write, a prayer and a passage in Chinese. The prayer is "From the sweet-scented streams ..." and the passage is "Let the flame of the love of God ..."

- I have a long list of ideas I compiled, some of my own, and some from friends, about learning to love God more. One is to spend more time in communion with nature, as part of my communion with God. I've been spending more time with some trees and shrubs near our home.

- Part of what I want to practice is an idea I got from Abdu'l-Baha, praising people. Some people I want to practice praising, for these initiatives, are people with ideologies opposed to mine. Who, what, where, when, how? Here, in this blog? Privately, to friends I'm writing to about these initiatives? On Facebook? In the forum where I've been posting? The names of some of the first people who came to mind, were notorious in some religious feuding on the Internet, and I'm not sure of the wisdom of singing praises of them here, now.

I just thought of one of the hardest people for me to love right now, and I tried to find something to love in him. I've always loved his avatar, and I still do!

I decided to practice praising people by writing to some of the people themselves, to express my appreciation for some things they're doing, so I just now wrote to three of them.